


First Scare, First Meeting

by Sinclaironfire



Category: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, First Meetings, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24458467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinclaironfire/pseuds/Sinclaironfire
Summary: Sally is adventurous, Jack is curious, and both have the chance of meeting another on a beautiful moonlit night in the graveyard.
Relationships: Sally/Jack Skellington
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	First Scare, First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> A sweet and simple first meeting between Jack and Sally.

Doctor Finklestein had forgotten to lock the door.

Sally, his latest creation and only a week old to boot, stared at the closed but unlocked door for the longest time. Her dear doctor had gone to bed hours ago and Igor was nowhere to be seen. She was all by herself. She had never been to the outside world before. She only knew of the laboratory. Doctor Finklestein had warned her against going out. He said that she wasn’t ready yet, not stable enough, to handle all that the world had to offer.

Naturally, she was put off. The laboratory was fascinating but she couldn’t do anything. Her creator kept her isolated from everything like she was a fragile doll waiting to break. Sally bit her lower lip in a huff. Maybe she was a bit fragile (who knew walking could be so hard?) but she hadn’t fallen down since Tuesday and her balance was continuously improving.

 _It couldn’t hurt anyone_ , Sally reasoned, _It would be for a few minutes and then I’ll come straight home_.

Right there in the kitchen, Sally threw off her apron and walked to the front door. She stumbled a little but firmly grasped the handle. A shock of excitement coursed through her. 

She was going outside.

* * *

There was a chill in the air. It wasn’t the sort of chill that made one want to bundle up and stay inside but the kind that made you think something was about to begin. Jack couldn’t quite place it but it made his bones ache in an odd sort of way. He stood in his study, viewing his town with a careful eye. The windows were open and Jack for all of his instinct, couldn’t get a handle on what it was that was in his town. Jack knew everyone. He thought that, perhaps, it was a ghost.

Ghosts were common enough in Halloween Town. They came out of the woodwork but no, that wasn’t it. Deep in his bones, the ache urged Jack to act. But to act against what? This was Halloween Town. It was the safest place in the world. There were no crimes. There were no threats or enemies to be had.

“I don’t like this, Zero.” Jack said to his faithful ghost dog. His loyal companion rubbed against his bony leg in comfort. “I don’t like this at all.” The hours wore on but he doubted that he would be able to sleep until he got to the bottom of this mystery. It was around midnight when he saw a figure stumble near the town’s fountain. “What is this?” The creature’s walk was not elegant like the vampires nor was it carefully planned like the werewolf’s hunched stride. Truth be told, the creature walked like it was drunk.

Oh.

The creature fell.

Whatever it was, it looked around to see if anyone else had seen its fall. No one had and the creature went on it’s merry way. Jack, stunned, shook his skull and said, “I’m going out, Zero. I’ll be back shortly.”

* * *

Jack stalked the strange new creature all the way out of town. Of all the places it could have gone, the creature chose to sit on the hilltop with its head craned toward the full moon. Seemingly hypnotized, the creature never realized that the magnificent Pumpkin King was following it. Jack crept from tombstone to tombstone.

The creature never heard him.

Jack stepped over the gate, sidestepping the leaves that would crunch underfoot. Closer and closer he got until the creature, perhaps sensing him, turned around. The creature screamed and Jack, out of instinct of getting a fright, roared. The blue and stitched woman fell over the hill backwards. Jack reached out for her but to no avail. She fell into the horde of pumpkins. Jack descended immediately to her aid.

“You startled me.” The stitched woman said in a soft voice. She lacked anger in it but it was full of surprise.

Jack, being the Pumpkin King and a master of fright, did indeed love to scare people but for the first time since he held the crown, did he honestly regret this spook. “I’m terribly sorry.” He helped her up. Jack realized that she was missing her right hand. “Oh no, your hand!” It laid on the ground, twitching sporadically.

“It’s alright.” She waved off the injury with her attached hand. “It happens more often than you think.” She bent down to pick it up but Jack beat her to it. “Here.” He said. “Allow me.” He held her hand for her as she stitched herself together. “Thank you.”

“What are you?” Jack blurted out. In hindsight, it sounded like a rude question to ask but when you lived in Halloween Town and there were more goblins and ghouls, vampires and zombies, werewolves and ghosts than anyone could count, a blue-skinned rag like doll stood out.

“I am a doll or a Finklestein Monster if you prefer.”

“What do you prefer?” Jack asked, enraptured by her.

Sally blinked and stopped her sewing. “I don’t know.” She replied. “No one’s ever asked me.” If this troubled Sally in any way, she didn’t let it show. Instead she smiled, finished her stitching, and asked Jack, “What are you?”

“Me?” It was his turn to be surprised. No one had ever asked him what he was before. The denizens of Halloween Town knew who he was as did the mortals that he inspired fear in.

Sally nodded. “I’ve never seen someone like you before.”

“Thank you.” Jack couldn’t ignore the pride that bloomed in his chest from hearing that, “I am a skeleton.”

“Hmm…” She processed this new information carefully. So he was a skeleton but that left her with more questions than it did answers. “And what is it that a skeleton does?”

“I can’t speak for other skeletons but as for me, I go around scaring people.”

“Like what you did to me?” She innocently asked.

Jack sheepishly grinned. “Oh no, not like that-well, yes but not in that manner.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, see we have this Holiday, Halloween, and it’s very exciting and fun and we go out and we scare people.”

“Oh.” She didn’t know what she was expecting but that wasn’t it. Jack’s excitement over his beloved Halloween instantly deflated. “Perhaps, I haven’t explained this properly?” He wagered.

She smiled softly. “Perhaps.”

“Ah, yes, well…” Jack paused, trying to figure out how to say the words. “You see, it’s a bit like this…” Jack rubbed the back of his skull. “I don’t know how to say this.” There had never been a need to say it before. It was purely instinctual. He didn’t read or study how to frighten people, it was in his bones to do so. “Um miss…” He then realized that he didn’t know her name. “How terribly rude of me, I don’t even know your name.”

“It’s Sally, Mr…?”

“Jack Skellington.” He said proudly. “Now that we are properly acquainted, you would like a demonstration to what we do on Halloween night?”

“I would love one.”

“Excellent.” He offered her the crook of his arm and she gladly took it. They walked out of the moonlit graveyard together.


End file.
